Capitalization

Capitalization rules are numerous and quite often challenging. This discussion focuses on the most basic rules used in capitalization. Consider the following examples:

Incorrect:	The king of Persia was assassinated.
Incorrect:	The courses in English are challenging, but the courses in Mathematics are impossible.

Rule to Remember

Capitalize the first word of a sentence, unique people, places, or things.

Correcting the Problem

In the first sentence, the word King refers to a unique title and it, therefore, needs to be capitalized. In the second sentence, mathematics refers to a general subject and not a specific course. It needs to be in lower case.

Correct:	The King of Persia was assassinated.
Correct:	The courses in English are challenging, but the courses in mathematics are impossible.

The most general rule for capitalization is to use capital letters always

to begin a sentence
for unique people, places, or things
for some abbreviations

Correct:

Considering economic differences between North and South, the Civil War was inevitable.

Capitalization in Sentences

Always begin sentences with a capitalized word. This may mean changing numerals to letters:

Correct:	One hundred and thirty-five votes were needed to win the election.
Correct:	Nineteen Eighty-Four was written by George Orwell.

Capitalization rules also apply to excerpts and quotations when you adapt these to begin a sentence. Here is one example:

[Line as it appears in the text]:

Correct:

But Mario couldn't deliver my note as no one really knows to this day where Lio is.

[As it appears when included in your paper at the beginning of a sentence]:

Correct:

'No one really knows to this day where Lio is' serves to affirm the author's reality, that Lio is yet another victim of the dictator's cruel and motiveless inhumanity.

But when a sentence is broken up into fragments for emphasis, subsequent parts are not capitalized:

Correct:

What should I do? stay? or leave?

Word Capitalization

Capitalize the following words:

Individual, unique names, and attached titles	Places and regions
John Smith Eleanor Roosevelt Governor Schwartz	Chicago Midwest South America the North Pole

Groups or organizations	Languages
Olympics Committee Chicago Bears Supreme Court Lions Club Kiwanis	Spanish English Tagalog

Trademarks and company names	Historical events, periods, documents
Coca-Cola Ford IBM Hyundai, Inc.	Middle Ages Declaration of Independence the Magna Carta the Civil War

Lists after colons	Days, months, holidays
Our mother had rules for us: 1) Come home on time. 2) Eat dinner. 3) Go to bed.	MondayMarch New Year's Day

But NOT seasons or centuries
fall, spring, eighteenth century

Capitalize the following words:

Book titles, but not their prepositions or articles	The names of ships are both capitalized and italicized
Gone with the Wind Under the Tuscan Sun the Koran How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents the Bible The Old Man and the Sea	the Queen Mary the Lusitania

Note the exception: unlike other books, sacred writings are neither italicized nor underlined.

Abbreviations

States	Time Periods	Educational Degrees
NJ CA USA omit periods	BC BCE CE AD	MA BA Ed.D. PhD

Always consider your audience. Abbreviations should be used only when they are terms familiar to your reader.

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